Near the Top of the World: Stories of Norway, Sweden & DenmarkMoore, Nelle E.
General
Near the Top of the World: Stories of Norway, Sweden & Denmark
Moore, Nelle E.
Readers -- Geography; Scandinavia -- Juvenile literature
Lars watched the fishermen taking the livers out of the fish and boxing
them. He knew that many of the livers would be sent to Hammerfest where
he lived, and there they would be made into cod-liver oil.
The Giants of the North Lands
Once upon a time very strong giants lived on the high mountains of the
North lands. So fairy tales of the far north say. And according to those
tales, the giants pulled up great bits of earth leaving deep hollow
places between rocky walls. Water from the sea filled those hollow
places, so arms of the sea ran far back into the land. And those giants
also tore great rocks out of the earth and tossed them at each other in
their battles. So even the tops of the mountains are rough and uneven
with the holes they tore in the earth and huge rocks lie on the ground
where they tossed them.
Visitors to that part of Norway called Jotunheim, which means the “Home
of the Giants,” might believe that those fairy tales were true. For they
see the arms of the sea running between the mountain walls and the rough
land on top of the mountains. Surely none but giants’ hands could have
torn the land into such shapes!
[Illustration: FREDRIK]
But when they go to the tops of the mountains, they see some _real
giants_ like those which, long, long ago, did cut the land of Norway and
Sweden and Denmark into strange forms. Those giants are sheets of ice.
We call them glaciers. Before travelers in the mountains get near the
large ice-sheets, they see tongues of glaciers which look like rivers of
ice running down the side of the mountain.
Fredrik is a Norwegian boy who helps many travelers see a glacier. His
father drives an automobile for a large hotel in the mountains. He takes
the guests from the hotel to see the glacier. When Fredrik is not in
school, he goes with his father. Fredrik opens the many gates. For the
car must travel through lands which belong to different farmers. The
gates must be kept shut so that the cattle will not stray away from
their own land.
Fredrik often tells the visitors what caused those rivers of ice. Snow
and sleet fell on the mountains. The cold on the high peaks kept the
snow from melting away, so year after year the snow gathered there. The
load of snow became heavier and heavier. The snow melted a little, then
froze again, until it formed a great ice sheet which we call a glacier.
Some of the ice moved slowly down the mountain side. It formed the
rivers of ice which the travelers see on the mountain slopes. But as the
rivers of ice got lower down the mountain, the ice melted, but it melted
very, very slowly. Little by little, only a few inches a year, the river
of ice has moved back. As the ice moved down the slopes it carried under
it big rocks and fine gravel. Great heaps of the rock and gravel are
left behind when the ice melts. From those rocks men can tell just how
far the ice moves back each year.
[Illustration: WALKING ON A GLACIER]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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